Rush Archives Blog

From the Rush Archives: Commemorating World Lung Cancer Day, August 1

The Rush Archives commemorates World Lung Cancer Day, August 1. 

-Post contributed by Rush Archives Work Study Student Kirsten Petrarca, Doctoral Student in Audiology, Rush University.

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers, and on World Lung Cancer Day we raise awareness for the associated risk factors and the importance of early detection and treatment.

From 1983 to 1990, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center* was involved in a multi-center study of a multi-modality treatment for lung cancer that utilized chemotherapy and radiation before surgery. The goal of this study was to find a treatment regimen that would increase – and, ideally, double – the survival rate for patients with stage III lung cancer. This study, led by Rush's Philip D. Bonomi, MD, associate professor of internal medicine, [top photo at left], and L. Penfield Faber, MD, professor of cardiovascular-thoracic surgery, yielded positive results with the majority of patients seeing minimized tumors and nearly doubled life expectancies.

A feature in Rush's publication The Magazine**, "Combination Therapy Promising for Lung Cancer," Spring 1991, noted the following:

For seven years, a series of studies was done on 83 patients who were eligible for surgery. They went through a number of rigorous treatments, receiving chemotherapy and radiation therapy simultaneously.

"It was a regimen that in the past was felt to be too toxic, but by using different drugs and adjusting doses and schedules for both chemo and radiation therapy, we've developed a program with an acceptable level of toxicity," said Dr. Bonomi.

To learn more about lung cancer and Rush today, visit the following page: https://www.rush.edu/services/conditions/lung-cancer.

And here is a recent brief video of Philip D. Bonomi, MD, The Alice Pirie Wirtz Professor of Medical Oncology, speaking about the importance of teamwork at Rush when approaching lung cancer and individual patients' care: https://doctors.rush.edu/Details/1571

To learn more about the history of Rush or the Rush Archives collections, please visit our website or contact the archivist, Nathalie Wheaton, MSLS.

*Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center changed its name to Rush University Medical Center in 2003.

**From The Magazine of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center Collection, #4730, Rush University Medical Center Archives, Chicago, Ill.